In many ways downtown Tampa has never been more dynamic — particularly on weekends, when large, popular events have taken place at Curtis Hixon Park.
But there's more work to be done, and so on Monday morning Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced a master plan and design study of downtown, the Nebraska Avenue Transit Corridor and its surrounding neighborhoods that he says will depend heavily on public input.
They're calling it the InVision Tampa Campaign for City Center, and the city is spending $1.2 million of recently received funding from a Housing and Urban Development grant to use two consultants on the project — AECOM out of Orlando, and Parsons Brinckerhoff, both global consulting firms.
"This is a plan where neighbors and neighborhoods are going to be fully engaged. We're going to go and talk to people about what they want their future to look like," Buckhorn said at a news conference at the City Hall Courtyard. "And talk to them about what they want this urban environment to look like. What are the amenities they need and how is it that they get to work, how they can live work and play in the same area? What it is that helps their neighborhoods successful?"
Throughout the half-hour-long event, Buckhorn repeatedly emphasized that it would be a grass-roots plan and not a decision made by those sitting inside City Hall — though he said inside groups like the Tampa Bay Partnership would be intimately involved. "The more diverse the voices, the better," he said.
The project will include Channelside, Ybor City, Tampa Heights, and the west bank of the HIllsborough River.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2012.